Cory Booker Explodes on Senate Floor, Slams Democrats for “Being Complicit with Trump”

Things got heated in the Senate on Tuesday as New Jersey Senator Cory Booker unleashed a rare, fiery outburst at his own Democratic colleagues, accusing them of rolling over for President Donald Trump’s agenda.

Booker’s frustration boiled over during a debate on several bipartisan bills that would boost funding for police programs. He blocked five of them, yelling that Democrats were “willing to be complicit with Donald Trump,” accusing the administration of weaponizing law enforcement grants and cutting funds to blue states like his own.

“This is the problem with Democrats in America right now!” Booker shouted, his voice echoing through the chamber. “We’re willing to be complicit with Donald Trump!” He later stormed off the floor, telling reporters, “A lot of us in this caucus want to f—ing fight.”

The showdown started when Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto tried to fast-track seven bipartisan public safety bills. Booker wasn’t having it, arguing that passing the bills would play into Trump’s politics while cops in New Jersey and other Democratic states are already getting shortchanged.

“Why would we do something today that’s going to hurt officers in states like mine?” he fired back.

Cortez Masto and Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar pushed back, saying Booker should’ve objected earlier when the bills passed committee. “This is not the way to go about it,” Cortez Masto said.

Klobuchar added:

“You can’t just do one thing on Police Week and not show up and not object, and then say another a few weeks later on the floor.”

That’s when Booker went nuclear. Pacing the aisle, he yelled:

“The Democratic party needs a wake-up call!” He railed against law firms “bending the knee” to Trump and universities “that should be bastions of free speech.”

“You want to come at me that way,” he said, pointing across the chamber, “you will have to take it on with me because there’s too much on the line.”

The blow-up highlights a growing divide inside the Democratic caucus: Should they fight Trump on everything, even at the cost of gridlock, or find room to cooperate? The base already hammered Democrats earlier this year when they helped pass a GOP-backed spending bill to keep the government open instead of forcing a shutdown.

Booker didn’t offer a clear plan forward, just a blunt call to “fight harder.” Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal summed up the split, saying he hears both messages back home: “Why can’t you all get along?” and “Thank you for fighting.”

Either way, Tuesday’s Senate drama made one thing clear: Booker’s done playing nice.

With input from The AP News